Brisbane Foodie Bus Tour

I was fortunate enough that the planets aligned and I was on holidays this week, so was able to join fellow Brisbane Food Bloggers, Twitterers, and general Food lovers on this fantastic christmas bus tour!




First stop was "The Fishery" at Milton where we were treated to a selection of Prawns, Salmon & Oysters. (yes, I passed sampling anything, but everyone else looked like they were in seafood heaven!)





Next stop : Wine Experience , Rosalie, where we sampled a number of different wines, including one from Luxembourg. Now while wine isn't exactly my cup of tea so to speak, if I need to buy some wine, this looks like the place to go, as the guys were so knowledgeable and helpful!!



Slightly silly from our wine tastings, the bus rolled on to Dello Mano Brownies, at Newstead, to taste a selection of magnificent Brownies.  It was difficult to decide on a favourite, so several tastings were necessary :-) . I think that the esspresso walnut, and the peanut butter were up there at the top of my list, but they were all so very good!





Full of Brownies, it was time to pay a visit to Black Pearl Epicure for a quick run down on Camembert & Brie, complete with tastings, and then a little time to purchase some delicasies in the shop


Next stop was Cakes by Judy C at Ashgrove, where we samples some Christmas Treats...




Sugar Plums!!







After all that eating, what could possibly be next??? yes, of course - LUNCH!!

Lunch was at Sprout at Auchenflower, where we had a special garden menu (with produce from the magical garden out the back!!!) (This is the vegetarian version - everyone else had a slightly meatier lunch)

Beetroot and witches chase cherve "lasagne" with basil foam



grilled organic tofu with mango sabayon and asian herb salad (everyone else had fish in place of the tofu)
..

 grilled olympus haloumi with warrigal greens, green olive and preserved lemons (the other main was a turkey and wild boar roulade with fig)




Chocolate macadamia and pineapple torte with basil icecream
(basil icecream was a bit difficult to get the head around to start with, but was actually great!!)



We were shown around the garden out the back - WOW!! I was very jealous, and inspired to expand my small vegie patch at home. I even went home with a cutting of the warrigal greens which is hopefully sprouting!!)



then to finish, -fruit mince pie and chantilly cream. This would have to be the best fruit mince pie I have ever tasted!

SO, what a fantastic day!! Thanks to Natascha for organising, to all of the places we visited for their generosity, and to everyone on the bus for a magnigficent experience!

Melbourne!!! Day 3 - Great Ocean Road Tour

breakfast was a couple of croissants from "Pie Face" which we had purchased the night before.  I tried to heat them up by snuggling them close to the boiling kettle in our hotel room. fail. Still, yummy enough croissants! We were being picked up by Wild Life Tours Australia for a one day tour of the Great Ocean Road!


first stop was the famous Bells Beach






I saw my first ever "wild" Koala. In that we saw Koalas that were in trees, not in zoos!





We had lunch (included in the tour) at Apollo Bay. Hanet had the Roast Chicken, Chips and I ate her salad :-)




I had a Vegie Burger.


We had about half an hour after lunch to have a wander around. We found ourselves at this ice cream shop :-)






It was delicious icecream! Janet had honeycomb, I had Dulce de Leche Gelato. mmmmmmmmm



We ate our ice cream whilst walking out to see the view of Apollo Bay.Then it was back onto our little bus.




next stop was Maits Rest Rainforest Walk


Then on to the twelve apostles.....


......Loch Ard Gorge


........London Bridge. All amazing sights to see (and a million more of my photos can be found here!!




on the way back to the city, we stopped at the Noodle Canteen at Colac for dinner

lemongrass & chilli vegie noodles



sweet chilli chicken noodles

Out for Dinner - Focus by James, Springwood

For our fifth "not-wedding" anniversary, we went out for dinner to Focus by James at Springwood.  This restaurant is located upstairs in a centre on the Pacific Highway service road, so whilst we were sat by the window, the views were of the highway and car yards. It was a Saturday night and the restaurant was seemed to be nice and full.

For entree, Janet had the Sweet Pork Belly....this was a special, so not on the online menu, the specials were read to us by our waitress from a srumpled piece of paper, and I am not sure of what else was in this dish - we think it was served with sweet potato mash.  Whatever the ingredients etc, Janet loved this dish. It was tender and melt in the mouth.

I went for the Bruschetta Trio caprese, mushroom ragout, peperonata. The toppings were very flavoursome, but the bread was a little soggy for my liking.

We then had a rather long wait for our main course. We think something might have gone astray in the kitchen - as there was some concerned chatting amongst wait staff whilst looking in our direction.

For my main, I ordered a second entree - this dish jumped out at me  - Smoked Beetroot, Cashew & Goats Cheese Ravioli w/ red wine & tarragon butter The filling in the ravioli was absolutely delicious - smooth, sweet and smokey with a hint of crunch from the cashews.  I think that the actual "pasta" was wonton wrappers, rather than fresh pasta, as it was very shiny and a bit sticky. I did love the filling!!

Janet chose the Free Range Chicken Breast w/ prosciutto, provolone cheese & warm lemon potato salad. I tried a little of the potato and it was nice and creamy.  Janet thought the chicken was great - nice and tender.

Then it was onto dessert -

Janet had Frozen Profiteroles filled with peanut butter ice cream in a sugar cage . I of course tasted this one too. The profiteroles were the best I have ecver tasted - I don't know if this is because I always have had duds, or if these were extra good :-).  They were filled with peanut butter icecream, which was like eating extra creamy peanut butter - divine!

I chose the Sour Apple Creme Brulee with Green Apple Sorbet My favourite part of this was the fantastic green apple sorbet YUM!! THe creme brulee was good also - a hard shell of caramalised sugar covered a soft creamy custard, with just a hint of sourness. Quite a different taste!

So overall a great dinner - I'm sure we'll be back again!

Ice Cream!!

A dark Choc Magnum for me .......... YUM :-)

A Golden Gaytime for Janet

Ekka Food - the strawberry icecream

The traditional Strawberry Icecream is still as good as ever. It costs $4.50, but it is well worth it :-) DELICIOUS!!!!

(I did only eat one of them!!)